The Lost Queen
by swanglade37
Summary: Susan goes home to Narnia, and her children learn about their mother's true past.


"Mum, do you have your coat?" Ella Clarke called. She got no response. "Mum? Are you there?" Still no response. "She wouldn't have forgotten, so where…?"

"Ella, where are you?" Her brother's voice drifted from below.

"Adam, do you know where Mum is?"

"She's supposed to be here! She knows we're taking her to the cinema **(1)** , right?"

"I think so. Anyway, she isn't here! I've called twice, and she hasn't answered at all."

"Then you aren't looking hard enough. Here, I'll come up and help." She heard a slam of a car door, and then Adam appeared in the doorway. She beckoned him in, and he tried calling for her too. "Mum! Mum! Mum, Ella and I are taking you to the cinema today, remember?" The silence reigned supreme for a few moments. Adam turned to his sister. "Let's try looking through the house. She might just not be hearing us. You know how her hearing's been going since Dad died."

Ella winced. "Couldn't have put that a bit more bluntly?" She asked dryly. "No, don't apologize," she said, raising a hand. "Let's just find her. Divide and conquer?"

"Yes, because that always works so well in films **(2)**." Adam replied sarcastically. "No, we stay together and look for Mum."

"Who died and made you High King of Narnia?" Ella muttered. It was a story based on a game their mother had played with her siblings as a child, a story she told them often when they were children. Her friends never understood the reference, but that never stopped her from making it. Nonetheless, she followed her brother and they systematically went through every room in the house. Their mother was nowhere to be found.

It wasn't until the last room that they found anything at all: an envelope. It had _Adam and Ariella_ written on it in their mother's fancy script. The siblings looked at each other wordlessly, then Ella reached for it with slightly shaking hands. No one called her Ariella except her mother, and only when she was being serious about something. There was a piece of paper inside, and a photograph. Adam took the photograph and they looked at it for a minute. It was of their mother as a teenager, probably about thirteen or fourteen, dressed in a orange-gold medieval-style gown. On her right was a boy dressed in a white and blue medieval style tunic who looked about fourteen, and on her left was another boy, probably about ten, dressed in a tunic of the same style as the first boy except in green and brown. Finally, there was a little girl who was eight at most, wearing a gown like their mother's, but hers was sea-green. Adam flipped it over, and on the back, in unfamiliar handwriting, it read: _Peter (14), Susan (13), Edmund (10), and Lucy (8) at a Renaissance Fair._ Then, in their mother's script: _Post-Narnia, High King Peter the Magnificent, Queen Susan the Gentle, King Edmund the Just, and Queen Lucy the Valiant, in proper dress._

On the paper, they found a letter, clearly written by their mother:

 _My dearest Adam and Ariella,_

 _Hello, darlings. I have not forgotten our date at the cinema, but I'm afraid I'll have to cancel. You see, when I was a girl of thirteen, my brothers Peter and Edmund as well as our sister Lucy discovered a magical realm called Narnia, where we defeated a witch and were crowned kings and queens. Well, I say we. Really, Lucy found it first, and the rest of us followed. There we ruled for fifteen years,-_

"That's impossible," Adam said, frowning, "because she met Dad when she was twenty-six. She'd have been twenty-eight when they stopped, and Dad certainly wasn't from some magical realm."

"Pipe down **(3)** so I can keep reading, and maybe we'll find out." Ella snapped.

 _-until, while we were on a hunt for the White Stag, who would grant wishes to those who caught him, we found our way back to War Drobe in Spare Oom (otherwise known as the wardrobe in the spare room of Professor Digory Kirke's house) and were children again._

"See? They were deaged when they came back." Ella said.

"You aren't saying you actually believe this?" Adam asked in disbelief.

"You don't? It makes sense. Mum always seemed-I don't know-queenly to me when I was little."

"Narnia was just a story of a game Mum used to play with her siblings, that's what she told us. She's just a bit barmy **(4)** without Dad. Her mind isn't as sharp as it used to be."

Ella stared at her brother. "You think Mum's gone mad **(5)**." It wasn't a question.

Adam shrugged. "It's the only logical solution. Magical lands don't exist, Ella."

"So you'd rather believe Mum mad than finish reading this note she left us?"

"I didn't say that."

"Then I'll continue, shall I?"

"Proceed."

 _For the next year, we tried to get used to living in England again. Then, just as Lucy was going to start boarding school with me for the first time, we got pulled back. Only, it had been approximately thirteen hundred years in Narnia, and we were no longer rulers. With the help of some Narnians, we defeated a group of invaders and crowned a prince king. However, this time, Peter and I were told that we were too old for Narnia and couldn't return. We were told that the son of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea, Aslan, existed in our world as well, and we were to find him. Peter took to this task marvelously. I… did not. Instead of embracing my Narnian self, I rejected Aslan, claiming that the whole thing was a game we played to distract ourselves from the war. But it wasn't._

 _Peter, Edmund, Lucy, and I were not the only people from our world to journey to Narnia. Several thousand Narnian years before us, Professor Kirke and Polly Plummer visited Narnia, and were there during its creation. A year or two after Peter and I were told we couldn't return, Edmund and Lucy went again, this time with our cousin, Eustace Clarence Scrubb. They were told they couldn't return, but Eustace went at least one more time with his friend Jill Pole._

 _Then, when I was twenty-two, there was a railway_ _ **(6)**_ _accident, which supposedly killed everyone who had been to Narnia, excepting myself of course, as well as my mother and father, Helen and Dale Pevensie._

 _You two know the rest of the story: I met your father a few years later, we hit it off smashingly, we married and had you two, and several decades later, here we are._

 _I do not believe that the railway accident killed my family, however. Aslan loved Lucy as much as he loved any of us, but a little more, and would not have let her die, even if she had been officially cast out from Narnia. Lucy always had the strongest belief and loved Narnia the most of all of us. I believe that Aslan did something at the last possible moment, and brought my family home. And it is high time I join them._

 _Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen. Farewell, my children, for I doubt I shall see you again._

 _Love,_

 _Mum, Queen Susan the Gentle of Narnia_

"So… should we still go to the cinema, or concoct a story for Mum's disappearance?" Ella asked finally.

"Cinema first, and then excuse making." Adam replied.

"Adam…"

"What, Ella?"

"Do you believe her?"

Adam paused. "I don't know," he admitted. "I still think it's impossible, but…"

"But what?" Ella prompted. Adam grinned.

"Well, from what I know about Aunt Lucy, it would be just like her to discover a magical land in a wardrobe."

"Yes," Ella said, smiling, "I think that's very much something Aunt Lucy would do. And she'd drag Uncle Edmund and Uncle Peter along with her, and Mum would chase after all of them with coats so they wouldn't catch a chill."

"Indeed."

 **#1-6: All British terms. The ways we say them where I'm from are, in order: movie theater, movie, shut up, and crazy (for both 5 and 6).**

 **Salutations! It is I, swanglade37, with more writings. This one is 1345 words long, in case anyone was wondering.**

 **Some of you readers might be surprised to learn that my favorite CoN character is actually Lucy, since I've written 2 fics about Susan and only one about Lucy. But it is true: Lucy is my favorite. But the thing about Lucy is, her storyline wraps up quite nicely. We never find out what happened to Susan. I am of the belief that Susan realized the error of her ways, but continued to live her life, believing that Narnia was forever lost to her. By the time she remembered that 'once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen', she was fully submerged in life in England. Finally, as an old woman, she found the courage to face Aslan, and then she was accepted into the New Narnia as a Queen once more.**

 **Anyway, I know I'm late for** Four, Not Three **, but I'm on vacation right now, and it's difficult to update from my mobile device. I will update as soon as I get home, and I haven't forgotten. I'm also really bad at meeting my own deadlines, so I'm sorry. Happy New Year anyway.**

 ***exeunt swanglade37***


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